AN: This is my first fanfic though I have written a lot of fiction it has never been based off of an actual show. Should be a one shot but who knows. Set just after the final scene in 3x22 after Regina storms out of Granny's. Please comment for good/bad or indifferent.
Regina Mills sat in her high wing back chair before a cold fireplace. Her jacket still pulled around her frame as the glass of cider sat abandoned on the side table. Chocolate brown eyes stared unseeingly at the white marble of the fireplace. Images raced through her mind of Robin running to embrace a beautiful dark haired woman as little Roland cried happily for his mother.
How much more hurt could she stand? She should have pricked her finger back in Fairytale Land and let all this notion of love go. There was no true love for her. No one to bring her back from that cursed sleep. She thought back to her box tucked in her vault underneath the mausoleum; maybe she had what she needed there to finish what she should have already done.
Zelena had shown up and given Regina a purpose again. To destroy her; she remembered those words, snorting at the memory. Sighing at the fact that she hadn't even done that; Zelena had managed to end her own life in dramatic fashion. Regina lost again. Was she really destined to always be on the losing side of everything? And then Robin and Roland happened. Blinking away the tears that had blurred her stared vision, Regina reached for her cider tumbler. The ice was gone the golden liquid watered down and hot. Swallowing the pungent liquid in one swallow Regina raised her hand to dispatch yet another glass into shards with a well-aimed throw into the fireplace, when a knock at the door stopped her. Always on the losing team; sitting the glass back on the side table Regina Mills leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.
Emma Swann stood on the stoop of 108 Mifflin Street knocking on Regina's door. The young woman's heart was breaking from the expression on Regina's face when Marion had been revealed to Robin and his son. Most people saw Regina's outburst as anger and betrayal. Emma saw right through the anger to what it really was; loneliness and fear. To be polite Emma knocked on the door one more time, the headed former queen was not going to answer the door but Emma made every effort to let her.
Reaching down into the box she had carried with her from her room at Granny's; Emma fished out a small key ring with a single key. She had only ever used this key twice but now it was needed again. Placing the key into the dead bolt, Emma turned the key hard with a loud audible click. She was determined to allow Regina every opportunity to let her in herself. Sighing when no sound came from inside Emma slide the key into the key hole on the handle, picked up her box and let herself into Regina Mills house. Why was she always on Regina's bad side?
Regina flinched when she heard the dead bolt clang loudly in the silent foyer. Would these people never give her privacy? Rising from her chair she stepped into the hallway to see who was interrupting her brooding. Regina swept a hand through her shoulder length brown hair and sighed when the sight of Emma's blonde head stuck through the open door and entered the darkened foyer. Regina never said a word just turned and returned to her chair in front of the darkened fireplace.
Emma, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the front hallway just made out the shadow of Regina as she headed into the den at the other end. Softly closing the front door and returning the locks to their original position with one hand; she balanced the box with her other arm and hip. Hopefully if all went well she wouldn't need to go back out the door until daylight at least. Walking to the den she followed the furniture around until she found Regina, once again in her high wing backed chair.
Emma Swann set the box, a years' worth of memories from New York and two years' from Storybrook and Boston at Regina's feet. Kneeling down Emma looked into the fireplace; concentrating hard as she focused as Regina had taught her, on the action she wished to complete. The faint pulse of magic that was normally present was absent; stolen by Hooks' cursed lips as Emma had saved his life. Zelena had one that battle, maybe even the war it seemed.
"It's gone. Here I longed to get rid of my magic and now it's gone, I actually miss it." Emma shook her head and turned to sit indian style on the floor behind the box. Regina for her part waved her fingers towards the hearth never moving her arm from the chair or her eyes from the fireplace. A small fire leapt into the grate. Emma looked up into the woman's face and then over her shoulder at the fire; sighing softly. Emma settled down for a long evening at Regina's feet and the box of memories.
Emma Swann rifled through the contents of the box for a second; searching for a map Henry had kept on his bedroom wall in New York. Finding it she looked up and held it out to Regina.
"When we finally settled in New York, Henry never really felt at home at first." Emma pulled the untouched map back into her lap and started to unfold it herself. The US map appeared before her; Henry's hand writing and different colored circles all over the face. "You gave us so many wonderful memories, adventures and dreams. At first Henry was upset that he had these memories but no souvenirs or evidence that we had actually gone to these places. He always felt as if there was something or someone missing. When we were situated with the apartment, Henry insisted that all of our new adventures be remembered. I bought him a camera and these are his memories from the last year. Even though he couldn't remember you he always told me we were incomplete, a piece was missing and he wanted to save all those memories so when we found the missing piece they would know all about our adventures as though they had been there all along." Emma looked up from the floor to see tears reflecting in brown eyes, the fire light casting shadows across the lonely face. Emma raised the map again to Regina who looked down and accepted the worn paper. Circles dotted the country as hand written notes in Henry's penmanship outlined the highlights.
Seattle; Space Needle, Orlando; Disney World, Colorado; skiing, dozens of circles and little notes. Regina's eyes fell on each one as she read another tear breaking its prison and sliding down her cheeks. A large crudely drawn red apple was over New York City. Regina laughed a smile on her lips, snorting through the tears.
"Why." Regina whispered while looking at the map.
"Why what?" Emma said watching as Regina tried to process what the young blonde has said about Henry.
"Why did you bring all this stuff to me? Is it not enough you have had him the last year? Do you have to rub it in too?" Regina fell back on the tried and true method, when in doubt; lash out. Emma flinched at the words but understood finally that this was Regina's defense; go on a raging offense and push everyone away.
"Regina, I know you don't mean that, and I also know that you do this when your upset or frightened. I didn't bring this stuff to make you feel less. I brought it to make you feel more. Our son spent the last year missing you. No he didn't remember you with his head but he sure did miss you with his heart. He made those memories so that when his mind found what his heart was missing he could share them. And it's you that he missed." Emma looked up into Regina's face when she said this; desperately trying to make a connection. "I know you think you are not loved; that your happy ending will never come but Henry loves you. Unconditionally and completely. And…." Emma stalls for a moment trying to figure out how to best say the next part. "And I for one love you too Regina. I love you for your strength and your stubbornness; for your never say quit mentality; for your compassion and your unwavering dedication to make things right." Emma looked at the box and flipped through the stacks of pictures and articles on top, down to the bottom of the box that held her memories of her first years in Storybrook. Pulling out a blue/gray scrap of silk from the bottom of the box, Emma smiled at the fabric that had once been the former mayor's shirt. Handing the scrap to Regina she saw the confusion and then the dawning of realization go across the older woman's face.
"Really Ms. Swann?" Regina smirked to the woman's shy look on the floor at her feet. Her face sobered "I have been bad for so long, what makes you think I can love anyone anyway?" Regina petted at the scrap of shirt in her hand.
"Because you have unconditional love for Henry; and so long as you have that you can learn to love in other ways; friendship, family, even romantic, they can be learned again. There is a Crosby, Stills and Nash song…"
"A who?" Regina looked at Emma Swann like she was crazy.
"Never mind who; there is a song that says if you can't be with the one you love then love the one your with. You can't bring him back from the dead and as for Robin, well I probably screwed that up. But you will learn to love the one your with. I'm sure of it."
Regina Mills leaned down and picked up the box of memories, pulling out the top couple of pictures. They were of Henry grinning wildly at his first baseball game and goofing off as he sat in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington Dc. Putting those down she picked up the next picture. A selfie of Emma and Henry in front of the beat up little yellow bug, the sand of the beach in the background. Holding it a little longer Regina spoke to Emma.
"Your magic should come back. Of course true loves kiss breaks all curses."
"Well then we know it's not Killian Jones." Emma snorted, straightening her legs out to rise. Walking to an end table she flipped on the lamp; soft white light filling the darkness. "Care to give it a try Madame Mayor? Two curses broken in one week; that would be a new record." Emma walked back towards a vacant chair next to Regina.
"Ms. Swann; your pushing your luck." Both woman laughed and returned to the box of memories.